Sacrifice
by melodiouslynocturne
Summary: Zexion must decide: save himself or sacrifice himself to save the one he loves most.


__AN: I made the heartless type up, since I don't know if there's a type that fits.__

__I don't own the characters, just the story. Characters belong to Square Enix.__

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><p><em>"Zexion! No!" Demyx cried, struggling relentlessly against the heartless holding him back.<em>

_"I'm sorry, Demyx." I muttered before unleashing my final blast of magic. "I love you." The world around me whitened instantly and quickly faded to black._

XXX

"Zexion! Demyx! My office!" Saïx barked, standing in the office door, anger flashing over his face. I pulled Demyx into a standing position and hustled into his office. Saïx was never pleasurable, especially given our failure at the last mission. We took our seats and the older member loomed over us. "Explain to me why exactly your last mission together failed in execution?"

"I got distracted." Demyx muttered, his head dropped into his chest.

I lifted my head in attempts to appear more confident than the blonde. "I'm sorry, Saïx. I assure you it will never happen again."

He sat in the chair behind his desk and began rifling through files. "Good. As I trust your abilities to keep Number IX in line, the Superior has requested I send you two to deal with the heartlesses that have been seen in and around the forests surrounding Twilight Town. You are to locate the heartlesses and wait for Roxas to arrive. He will be back later this evening, however we can't afford to have them wandering about untracked. Any questions?" He asked, looking up.

Demyx shook his head, clearly afraid of the older man. I on the other hand spoke up. "What do you recommend we do once we've located said Heartlesses?"

"Wait." He responded sincerely, sliding a folder towards me. I must have raised an eyebrow, since he elaborated. "These heartlesses have been noted to be quite strong. Ruthless, if you will. It's best to keep your distance, but keep them within eyesight until Roxas arrives. If forced to fight, fight hard. Otherwise, stay away." Saïx stood and flicked his wrist, a dark blue portal appearing to the side of him. "If there are no further questions, your portal awaits." I nodded and stood, kicking Demyx lightly. He stood and bowed, stepping through the portal. I turned to Saïx, looking for some sort of encouragement. "Best of luck, Zexion. Keep Demyx focused and wait for Roxas." I nodded again and stepped through the portal.

XXX

"Oh, come on, Zexy! Lighten up a bit!" Demyx danced around me, a large smile on his face. I chuckled. It had been a while since he'd been here, be it on a mission or in his free time, and he wanted to take a look around to familiarize himself again. I glanced down at my watch. I'd talked to Roxas earlier and he mentioned he should be back around 7:30 assuming everything went perfectly. The face read just after 3, and knowing Demyx, the heartlesses would flock to him; he just had that air about him. I smiled at Demyx, who had stopped dancing and was looking at me curiously, and nodded. He beamed, dragging me over to the market place, his hand firmly holding mine. I blushed. Even as a Nobody, I wasn't a firm believer in the whole 'no feelings' concept, even if I did pass it off like I did. I'd admit it. I liked Demyx. Hell, you could even say I loved the energetic blonde.

"Zexy? Your ice cream is melting." He nudged me. I looked down. My ice cream had in fact started to melt down my hand. I smiled sheepishly and licked it off. Demyx smiled and continued rattling on about whatever it was he had been talking about.

I looked at my watch. 4:30. "Come on, Demyx. We need to go find the heartlesses." I stood, stretching slightly.

"Do we have to?" I nodded. He sighed and stood, shoving the rest of the cone in his mouth. "Alright. Let's go." He strolls towards the edge of the forest. He turned back, noticing that I hadn't moved. "Out there be monsters, Zexy. We heading out on a monster hunt!" He exclaimed, running into the trees.

I chuckled. "Out there be monsters." I muttered before running after him.

XXX

"Zex-" Demyx started before I hushed him. We'd been in the forest for not half an hour before I noticed it. The shifting of the shadows, the light rustling around us. I crouched around, keeping low to the ground. On my count there was no more than 6 of them. Generally easy to manage, but these seemed to be huge, or at least strong. Best of all, they'd been trailing us a good 5 minutes. Them hunting us instead of us hunting them.

I continued on, low to the ground. Out of the corner of my eyes I could see the heartlesses, keeping to the shadows, their eyes glowing slightly in the muted light.

I felt Demyx rub up beside me. "How many?" He whispered.

"6." I replied just the same, freezing. Through the trees was a clearing, and I could see them. An additional 5 heartlesses, seeming to be planning. "Demyx, we-" I turned to look at him and my heart nearly leaped out of my chest.

A heartless staring me straight in the face.

My eyes widened as it smiled, hoisting me up and carrying me into the clearing. Demyx was struggling, his sitar on the ground beside him and his hands pinned behind him by a heartless. _These have to be a new type of heartless, or I'd've heard about them, _I thought to myself as the heartless holding me lead me to the center of the clearing. It let me go and joined the group ahead of me. I heard a faint chattering coming from them. Planning. I glanced over at Demyx: tears were building in his desperate eyes as he struggled relentlessly to release himself from what I assumed to be the painfully tight grip. I tried to take a step towards him, but found my feet frozen in place. I my head back to the group in front of me, fury in my eyes. They smirked and attacked.

First to come were the little ones. I picked them off easy. Next the middle ones, larger around than the little ones, yet dramatically shorter than the large ones that got me and Demyx. They were a little harder to defeat, yet still nothing like what I was about to face.

The remaining four large ones circled around me, making animalistic noises and clawing at me. I threw a few spells at them, but they dodged them, continuing their jeering. I spun around, assessing what exactly it was I had to kill. "I'm sorry, Saïx. This mission will surely fail." I muttered before going after the weakest of the group. It snarled at me, swinging its talon-like claws at me. I ducked, narrowly missing them and copied his attack in illusions. The heartless yelped, flew backwards and vaporized into the shadows. I smirked. If this was really all-

"ZEXION!" Demyx screamed desperately. I whipped my head around and the heartless had me pinned to the ground before I could do anything. Its heavy weight sat on me as it swung, connecting with my face and torso. I turned my head, hoping to shield my eyes somewhat while I thought of a plan. I felt a faint trickling around my ears and chest. The faint trickling of blood loss. I turned back to the beast on top of me. _This means war,_ I thought, willing a replicate spell at him. He knocked backwards and I shot up, preparing myself to end this thing. I smirked as he came charging. "ZEXY! BEHIND YOU!" Demyx screamed. I turned around and jumped, narrowly missing the two approaching heartlesses. I flipped over them, landing a good 20 feet away. They sped towards me, snarling and glaring. I barely had enough time before putting up a shield and leaping into a tree, hiding in the leaves. These seemed to be ground dwelling heartlesses, leaving me safe to think.

There were two ways this could go. One, I could portal out. The problem with that was leaving Demyx in the hands of the three down there. Two, I could use what was left of my magic to kill them. The problem with that was… This was about Demyx and I had to remember that. This was about keeping him safe. I had made a promise to myself the moment I had first talked to him to protect him to the best of my ability, no matter the cost. I had sworn myself that and intended to uphold it. No matter the cost.

I jumped down from the tree. The heartlesses had lost focus on me and had moved to Demyx, giving me time. I closed my eyes and rolled my neck, focusing what I could into the palms of my hands. I could feel them shift their attention back to me and began to stalk forwards.

I opened my eyes and glanced over to Demyx. "I have to do this, Demyx. The only way for me to save y- the only way for me to take them down is to use all my magic and all my energy at once." I projected to him. His mind was so easy to break into. I turned back to the approaching heartless and focused his energy once more.

"Zexion! No!" Demyx cried, struggling relentlessly against the heartless holding him back.

"I'm sorry, Demyx." I muttered before unleashing my final blast of magic. "I love you." The world around me whitened instantly and quickly faded to black.


End file.
